Convergence (2000) for clarinet, cello, and piano

Materials

About

Two things converge if they approach the same place from different directions. This piece begins with two very different gestures: the first is lyrical and expressive, the second rhythmically driving and mechanical. As the gestures repeat and evolve, they sound more and more like each other, until they ultimately lead to new musical material.

In mathematics, something converges if it approaches a limit over time. In this piece, the relative lengths of each section were determined by an integer sequence generated by a mathematical formula. Initially, the numbers in the sequence jump wildly up and down, but the sequence eventually "converges" into an exponential decay function.